You say MRI, I say NMR. These sound almost like William Steig would have used them, but not quite.
Chad over at Uncertain Principles give the lowdown on the phenomenon of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
[…] Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), which is the “M” and the “R” in “Magnetic Resonance Imaging”– they ditched the “N” because “nuclear” is scaaaary, and doctors are wusses.
Yeah, but tell your doctor that when he’s got a sharp instrument or weird probe-thingy in his hand.
It’s also pepsi-through-the-nose funny, especially if you are a reasonably strict grammarian.
Read about the f’amazing Dr. Novoselov
US currency is ugly, and the new $5 bill, which entered circulation a few weeks ago, especially so. A purple “5” on a green bill? Fugly. The fun thing about visiting other countries is seeing currency and coinage that looks interesting. I never realized how bland US currency was until I did my postdoc in Canada, and after only a few months away had trouble telling US bills apart.
New British coins are out, and IMO they look awesome. Compare and contrast the artistic value with our new fiver.
Update: John Gruber at Daring Fireball writes
When I commented on the ugly new U.S. five dollar bill the other day, several readers wrote in to argue that the bill should not be criticized, because some of the changes which have made it uglier were made for the benefit of people with low vision. That’s bullshit. Accessibility is an important and worthy goal, but it is not at odds with good design. We should settle for nothing less than beautiful and accessible currency. This isn’t it.
Lest you think that physics research is all about smashing shiny new large hadrons into each other (or even used economy or subcompact hadrons), or something to do with conductors (whether they be super, normal or semi), or the groupies — let’s not forget the groupies — there are folks out there studying the physics of tangled cords and physics of tearing wallpaper/posters/tape.
I was poking around the blogdom — with the rise of science-y, i.e. non-diary (and, I suppose non-dairy) blogs, surfing the web has become interesting again — and ran across a link to How to Build a Cloud Chamber, and that reminded of the person that built the cloud chamber using a Starbucks cup. (Not sure if he was so vain, however.)
And that reminded me of the question I had back then — TRIUMF had a large, continuously-running chamber in the lobby of the visitors’ entrance last time I was there, and though nobody does it better, I’m sure there are other facilities with similar setups. Why not run a webcam showing it? I haven’t found one.
Second-best is video. Here’s one that shows the construction steps of a good one, and some tracks. That’s at the end, so there will be some anticipation.
Physics conspiracy: LHC could kill us all
Conspiracy nuts have suggested that it might also inadvertently destroy the Earth (or maybe even the entire Universe)
…
[B]asically the cranks think that the collider will also cook up either an exotic particle or a tiny black hole that will suck up everything around it. It’s pretty much bunk, as others smarter than I have said (here for example).But that hasn’t stopped Walter L. Wagner, a botanist and self-proclaimed nuclear physicist, from filing suit in US District Court in Hawaii to stop the LHC before it destroys all we hold dear. Wagner wants a “full-scale safety analysis” to be conducted of the collider before its start up, hopefully later this year.
If we’re really lucky, the LHC cook up an exotic particle that will “inadvertently” destroy the crackpots (and maybe take a few lawyers down, too). Not that anybody’s planning this, mind you …
The 6 Cutest Animals That Can Still Destroy You
Pay special heed to #5.
10 effects you should have heard of, over at Backreaction.
Full disclosure: I don’t recall hearing of #10, and I didn’t know #9 by its “formal” name.
snark: But I have heard of the ending-your-sentence-with-a-preposition effect. (it’s a weakly forbidden phenomenon)
A paper Enigma machine. No, it’s not just ROT13.
This machine is compatible with the original 3-rotor German Enigma used during World War II. For simplicity it omits the “ring settings” and plug board, but the primary workings of the machine are captured in this model. Great as an educational tool, or just for fun!
I don’t have the brain for understanding advanced encryption, but I’ve read a couple of books about Enigma/ULTRA/Bletchley Park. Neat stuff.